Notre Dame Football: The State Of an Irish Fan

Alright, it’s almost time.

Sleep will be hard to come by, grills are breaking out, and beer is cracking open again because it’s the most wonderful time of the year: college football season.

To be honest, I haven’t been on this website much, not since last year.

Notre Dame football hurt in 2009, losing four straight games in excruciatingly depressing fashion, the Fighting Irish limped to the end of the year averaging 15 lbs lost on the defensive side from beginning to end of the season as well as one piece of electronic equipment being broken violently at my house every game.

But there’s hope.

His name’s Bryan Kelly, and he talks a mad game; he’s a politician; he has me believing the echoes might not just be woken up but could actually not hit the snooze button every few years.

I don’t know, I do know that in Chryst we trust because there is no other option at quarterback. I do know that Kelly took some guy named Tony Pike at Cincinnati and turned him into a bonafide stud as well as a household name. 

Chryst’s young, there’s youth in this team and that just makes me ecstatic whether your talking about Theo Riddick, some guy named Floyd who just might win the Heisman if he can stay healthy, or the man named Manti Teo who I fully expect to injure multiple players this year.

Paul Longo is the new director of strength and conditioning so ideally our boys won’t lose weight over the season because I’m not a professional on these sort of things but I’m fairly certain that’s the opposite of what you want to happen as a football team. For the first time in my life and yeah, I can say this honestly, we have a head coach who is competent. 

Thank God.

Don’t get me wrong I appreciated the talent Charlie brought in and how he turned Brady Quinn into my hero.

But I also hated his fat ass.

I hated how he looked, hated how he coached my goddamn football team with no care for defense and I hated how he gave his son a freaking headset and let him chill on the sidelines.

He brought in big names, talked a big game but when the chips were down, Charlie Weis was an offensive coordinator and not a football coach.

Damn good offensive coordinator, don’t get me wrong, and the numbers will back him up but losses to a team named Navy who we beat 40 straight years in a row is just unacceptable.

Just freaking unacceptable.

The talk in South Bend is absurd, I’ve heard the words national championship thrown around and it makes me want to vomit. Baby steps gentleman, we’re one year removed from not going to a bowl game.

You look at the schedule and I say every year that it’s tougher than the first glance. 

The opener at Purdue should be a W, Michigan and MSU are always a crapshoot, and it just get’s interesting from there.

Stanford used to be an automatic but I still have nightmares about Gerhart terrorizing last year.

Boston College is away, a rivalry, and with Pittsburgh coming to the Bend the following weekend, is the make or break one-two punch of the season.

After that it’s not bad but if there’s one thing a Notre Dame fan wants, it’s to beat the piss out of USC.

Don’t get me wrong I still think small, as in we have to beat Navy and Army otherwise I’m going to break my television and lose hope but USC is always so good.

Close game last year, came down to the last freaking play and between that game and the Bush push I don’t know which one broke me more.

It’s time boys, and I can’t wait, the seasons are changing the smell of beer is in the air and there’s something different in Notre Dame football.

Maybe I’m just another sucker Kelly has roped into his political ring but I don’t know. Maybe Floyd will win the Heisman, maybe they’ll win 12 games though I think eight is more realistic, and hopefully they give me a product I can be proud to root for.

Maybe the word is now hope in South Bend, something that hasn’t been there for a long time, or it could probably just be football season and this is what we live and breathe for as red blooded Americans.

I only know that I can count on one thing this season, the night of September 3 I will not be able to sleep. Go Irish.